President Barack Obama's pardon of eight people serving long prison terms on crack cocaine raps alleviates inequalities that occurred when society enacted stiffer sentences to fight drugs, says Christopher Parker, a professor of social justice and political science at the University of Washington.

"People tried to alleviate their feelings of inadequacy and poverty by this cheap drug because crack costs a whole lot less to manufacture and to purchase than did cocaine," Parker told "The Steven Malzberg Show" on Newsmax Tv.

"So race and class here are really tightly linked and one can make the argument that whether it's coincidence or not, race had something to do with this escalating legislation that led to more steeper sentences as it pertained to crack vis–à–vis cocaine."